Myrtis Mulkey-Ndawula, chief executive officer of the Southwest Georgia Community Action Council, addresses attendees at Tuesday night’s open house honoring the 50th anniversary of the Economic Opportunity Act, which created Community Action Agencies. The local CAC was founded a year later.

The Southwest Georgia Community Action Council’s (CAC) motto is “Helping People Help Themselves” and, with this in mind, this non-profit organization has been serving Southwest Georgia for 49 years.

“Our primary focus is self-sufficiency. We want to give people a hand up instead of a hand-out,” said Myrtis Mulkey-Ndawula, chief executive officer, in a previous interview.

The organization celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Economic Opportunity Act with a Chamber of Commerce Business Afterhours and Open House on Tuesday evening. The Economic Opportunity Act, signed into law in 1964 by President Lyndon B. Johnson, authorized the formation of local Community Action Agencies across the nation.

In 1965, the Southwest Georgia CAC was chartered after being spun off from the Area Planning and Development Commission, which was in Camilla and retired Naval officer Cmdr. Clinton served as the first executive director.

The program initially rose from a group of concerned Colquitt County citizens including Adeline Barber who investigated the possibilities of receiving funding from President Lyndon Johnson’s “Great Society” programs. Clinton had agreed to chair the group and seek funding from the Office of Economic Opportunity.

“As a Community Action Council agency we feel we have a significant impact in the community,” Mulkey-Ndawula told the audience during Tuesday’s event.

The first program funded was a child care program and the first child care center opened in January of 1966. In June of the same year, the first neighborhood service center was opened and they expanded to service ten counties. In the early ’80s she said they took on another four counties and then, in the late ’90s, another four. Now, CAC serves 14 core counties, plus four counties in which they manage the Head Start program and three counties in which they manage a housing program.

“We serve over 2,300 children in Head Start,” Mulkey-Ndawula told the crowd. “It’s not just a baby-sitting service, it’s a comprehensive service that truly gives our children a head start. We have staff members who were Head Start babies. We have center directors who were Head Start babies.”

Specialists are sent out of the office in Colquitt County to assist with a variety of areas in the centers including education, nutrition and disabilities. In addition to the 22 Head Start Centers, there is a service center in 12 of the core counties — Baker and Mitchell counties and Lee and Dougherty counties have combined centers.

Some of the community services provided by CAC include the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, afterschool/summer programs, work experience/job coach programs, USDA Surplus Commodity Distribution, food pantries, Family PRIDE Parenting Program, and informal child care training.

“When you give a person hope, you give them the inspiration to do something for themselves,” Mulkey-Ndawula said.

The CAC moved into its old facility on First Avenue Southwest in 1987 and then started purchasing the houses around them as the programs grew. The  non-profit moved into what was once a FoodMax and CVS on First Avenue Southeast in June of 2010, and the new building has provided them with around 38,100 square feet of office space and a conference center of about 8,100 square feet.

When the initial reception was held for the CAC’s “new” location, Mulkey-Ndawula said she could tell from some of the comments at the ribbon cutting that the building was more than what people had expected and that they did not realize the scope of the organization’s operation.

“I guess it’s like the proverb: A picture’s worth a thousand words. … We’ve been at this business since 1965 and it’s grown. It’s definitely grown over the years,” she said.

Mulkey-Ndawula stated that between 25 to 30 million dollars was being brought into the county through the agency and its more than 600 employees, who spend money here.

“Are we a burden to the community? No. We’re an asset,” she added.

“It’s not just financial. It’s the people that are touched and helped and encouraged. It’s amazing what you do for the people in this community,” said Mayor Bill McIntosh to Mulkey-Ndawula and her staff in attendance.

“After being in business for 49 years, I feel we have reasons to celebrate. So, celebrate, celebrate, celebrate,” Mulkey-Ndawula said in closing.